The Syrian regions hit by the massive earthquake early last month are home to 3.7 million children facing a “catastrophic combination of risks,” UNICEF chief Catherine Russell warned after a two-day visit to the region.
“The Syrian children have already endured unspeakable horror and suffering,” Russell said in a press release. The earthquake and the many aftershocks are now on top of that. “Not only have they destroyed more homes, schools and playgrounds, but they have shattered any sense of security for so many of the most vulnerable children and families.”
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Several schools in the affected zones now serve as shelters for earthquake survivors. Water treatment plants already damaged by the war have been destroyed by the quake, raising the risk of a wider spread of diseases such as cholera.
The war that has been raging in the country since 2011 has already killed half a million people and displaced millions of people.
The earthquakes have already killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria, nearly 6,000 of them in Syria.
The visit took the UNICEF top woman to Aleppo, the second city of the country that is under the control of the regime and was severely affected by the quake.
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